Twelve Rooms With A View

At stake: a magnificent though dilapidated apartment in the Dakota Buildings (where John Lennon lived and died).

The dilemma: concede honourably to the rightful heirs or take what could be yours by an oversight in a will?

Tina Finn was standing on the edge of her mother's grave when she heard about her possible inheritance. Her much-married mother had not included her earlier children in her new, reclusive and, most importantly, very rich husband's life. He died just shortly before her and, as he left no will, his wife was his heir for the week she survived him. Then the fortune, including the apartment, passed down to Tina.

The family thought that possession was worth three points of the law and instructed Tina to move in right away. But when she did, she discovered many things about the place, including occupants who were also the rightful inheritors, people who seemed to have squatting rights, those who were growing strange plants in the place and running a variety of businesses from it.

Inheritance turns out to be a messy business, but one almost impossible to avoid.